Former Raleigh City Council member running for new seat
Former Raleigh City Council member John Odom seeks to rejoin the board he served on for over 20 years.
Odom, 75, filed to run for one of two at-large seats on the council.
He served on the Raleigh City Council from 1993 to 2015 in the District B seat, which covers northeast Raleigh. He was defeated by current incumbent David Cox in 2015 and again in 2017.
“It’s important for someone to get back to the basics of the City of Raleigh,” he said. “Paying our police officers. Such as making sure the water and sewer was done correctly. And all those things, we need to be frugal, because it’s getting expensive to live here in the city of Raleigh. And we need to keep that as low as we can. It’s not going to stop.”
He said he had a number of people encourage him to run, including for the mayoral seat. He currently lives in District A, though he says he hasn’t moved. The city changed its districts line this year, and he was moved from District B to District A.
Odom said he first ran to make Raleigh a city his children would want to stay in after they graduated from high school. He said he accomplished that goal and wants to do the same thing for his grandchildren now.
Filing for the Raleigh City Council election continues until noon Friday.
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 6:43 PM.
